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William Carlos Williams: A Collection of Critical Essays
"Looking at the sycamore tree, the red wheelbarrow, the butterfish, the flowering chicory, William Carlos Williams saw the "world" contracted to a recognizable image." His poems are acts of discovery in which, like Adam taking inventory of his Garden, the poet takes possession of his world as he names the objects which compose it.
Though Williams' work received considerable attention during his lifetime, he has only gradually come to be recognized as one of the most important of twentieth-century American poets. "It is possible," writes the editor of this volume, "that Williams, even more than Stevens, say, or Frost, will appear to later eyes as the initiator of a new tradition in literature, the creator of a poetry uniquely American...." William Carlos Williams returned poetry to the facts of immediate experience. While in romantic poetry the poet often sought beyond or above the object for its meaning, in Williams' world things are themselves, signify themselves. While a poem by Williams lasts, the editor explains, nothing exists beyond it but the chicory, in one poem, or bits of broken glass on cinders in another, or the young sycamore between pavement and gutter in a third. The present alone is, and the aim of a poem, Williams declared, must be "to refine, to clarify, to intensify that eternal moment in which we alone live."
The essays collected here, many of them written by fellow poets, praise Williams as "a model and a liberator," demonstrate the ways in which his work provides a "grammar of American culture," and in themselves testify to Williams' continuing influence on the most vital poetry being written today. They reveal a robust artist whose poems celebrate the world, the poet, and the power of poetry itself."
Though Williams' work received considerable attention during his lifetime, he has only gradually come to be recognized as one of the most important of twentieth-century American poets. "It is possible," writes the editor of this volume, "that Williams, even more than Stevens, say, or Frost, will appear to later eyes as the initiator of a new tradition in literature, the creator of a poetry uniquely American...." William Carlos Williams returned poetry to the facts of immediate experience. While in romantic poetry the poet often sought beyond or above the object for its meaning, in Williams' world things are themselves, signify themselves. While a poem by Williams lasts, the editor explains, nothing exists beyond it but the chicory, in one poem, or bits of broken glass on cinders in another, or the young sycamore between pavement and gutter in a third. The present alone is, and the aim of a poem, Williams declared, must be "to refine, to clarify, to intensify that eternal moment in which we alone live."
The essays collected here, many of them written by fellow poets, praise Williams as "a model and a liberator," demonstrate the ways in which his work provides a "grammar of American culture," and in themselves testify to Williams' continuing influence on the most vital poetry being written today. They reveal a robust artist whose poems celebrate the world, the poet, and the power of poetry itself."
First published January 1, 1966
About the author
J. Hillis Miller
90 books26 followersJ. Hillis Miller is UCI Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author, most recently, of Black Holes (which was published with J. Hillis Miller; or, Boustrophedonic Reading by Manuel Asensi) (Stanford, 1999)
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
April 16, 2018
Picked this up at a library's used book store for a buck alongside Wallace Steven's Harmonium. I've been reading Paterson for a little while and this seemed nice as a collection of essays by contemporaries and poets.
It was pretty good. I came to a better understanding of WCW's poetry and why he writes the way he does. It was a quick read, not overly academic or anything although a few of the essays were clearly nonsense poetic academia from the time. Ironic because WCW's was completely against that sort of thing. Others really cut into WCW's authorial voice and his poetic project.
I think I like Robert Lowell's the best simply because it was the best prose. He worked Williams' style of the everyday, "no ideas but in things" into the essay he wrote. So you know of course I'm gonna respect that. Pound's was cool. Steven's was alright.
All this amounts to is that Williams' as a modernist imagist American poet was trying to break free of the poetic methodology of Romantic and symbolic poetry. He did so by writing poetry that described things in the world. Poetry is not a mirror to nature, but imitating it is the best we can do. Basically. He had one thought I disagreed with that fitting a simile to some situation is weak because it only ever has a vegetable similarity. Blah blah. Sometimes simile's are overwrought or overextended but they are also quite excellent.
I got the impression that WCW was bold for undertaking to "reimagine" what poetry does, but I also think there's an arrogance in that. That his type of poetry is the type of poetry and that it must be defined by exiling other sorts. The stuff he did with free verse though and how his success inspired others to adopt similar organizational structures is awesome. He's definitely an important figure in modern American poetry if a bit old to today's standards.
There was also some story in one of the guy's essays about how WCW slapped the ass of a fan who had come with a group because he was "taken in by a flight of fancy to do so." And the author tries to excuse WCW because that's just the heart of a poet as whimsical as he. I think that that's dumb.
This book also encouraged me to look up Marianne Moore, whose poetry is excellent (Please read "The Fish"!). Her essay is three short reviews, a little too specific for poems I hadn't read, but seemed competent enough.
So overall I think this book is probably too old to be really relevant, but in other respects it is extremely relevant and was a fun read for me. Informational in the least, but it also had some thoughts about WCW's process for me to ruminate on. I would recommend this book to people like me who are reading WCW for fun? I dunno I'm sure people who study him are reading more current stuff, although like I said, as historical essays some of these in the collection are irreplaceable in a way. Honestly the people I'd recommend this to are the people who want to borrow it from me cuz like where are you even going to find this book? Haha well anyway!
Happy Reading!
It was pretty good. I came to a better understanding of WCW's poetry and why he writes the way he does. It was a quick read, not overly academic or anything although a few of the essays were clearly nonsense poetic academia from the time. Ironic because WCW's was completely against that sort of thing. Others really cut into WCW's authorial voice and his poetic project.
I think I like Robert Lowell's the best simply because it was the best prose. He worked Williams' style of the everyday, "no ideas but in things" into the essay he wrote. So you know of course I'm gonna respect that. Pound's was cool. Steven's was alright.
All this amounts to is that Williams' as a modernist imagist American poet was trying to break free of the poetic methodology of Romantic and symbolic poetry. He did so by writing poetry that described things in the world. Poetry is not a mirror to nature, but imitating it is the best we can do. Basically. He had one thought I disagreed with that fitting a simile to some situation is weak because it only ever has a vegetable similarity. Blah blah. Sometimes simile's are overwrought or overextended but they are also quite excellent.
I got the impression that WCW was bold for undertaking to "reimagine" what poetry does, but I also think there's an arrogance in that. That his type of poetry is the type of poetry and that it must be defined by exiling other sorts. The stuff he did with free verse though and how his success inspired others to adopt similar organizational structures is awesome. He's definitely an important figure in modern American poetry if a bit old to today's standards.
There was also some story in one of the guy's essays about how WCW slapped the ass of a fan who had come with a group because he was "taken in by a flight of fancy to do so." And the author tries to excuse WCW because that's just the heart of a poet as whimsical as he. I think that that's dumb.
This book also encouraged me to look up Marianne Moore, whose poetry is excellent (Please read "The Fish"!). Her essay is three short reviews, a little too specific for poems I hadn't read, but seemed competent enough.
So overall I think this book is probably too old to be really relevant, but in other respects it is extremely relevant and was a fun read for me. Informational in the least, but it also had some thoughts about WCW's process for me to ruminate on. I would recommend this book to people like me who are reading WCW for fun? I dunno I'm sure people who study him are reading more current stuff, although like I said, as historical essays some of these in the collection are irreplaceable in a way. Honestly the people I'd recommend this to are the people who want to borrow it from me cuz like where are you even going to find this book? Haha well anyway!
Happy Reading!
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review